Nothing equals attending musical events such as opera, oratorios or ballets in person. There's no question we need to support our local arts organizations whole heartedly!

But streaming allows those of us far and wide to share performances together and there's just something magical about that!

Also, it lets us share performances from the past that are so great they deserve to live on!

Do you have special online holiday "events" you like to revisit every year? These three concerts always awaken my holiday spirit and sentimentalism - I hope you will share them with me...

Holiday Classical Concerts

• Andre Rieu - Home for Christmas
• Renne Fleming and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir
• The Three Tenors - Christmas in Vienna

Here are more ideas for online viewing of Holiday Favorites!

Handel's Messiah: So many choices- here are a few interesting ones!

• Messiah as Ballet - San Juan
• Messiah 2019 – Cambridge
• Messiah 2018 - Berlin - involves some physical performance and "Lightsabers"?

The Nutcracker Ballet: Choices from YouTube

• New York City Ballet
• The Australian Ballet - Fascinating- Very different
  Read about the story of this production: Click here
• Royal Swedish Ballet

Holiday Operas

Click here to visit Opera on Video to see many choices of operas to watch that are associated with the holidays. Search by title and look for the ones marked “Full operas”. Flamand Oliver is one man curating this vast selection so I encourage you to support him! 

You can also search on YouTube to discover your own favorite version of these operas. 

• La Boheme with it’s magical Christmas Eve love scene and festive Act 2 set in the joyful streets of Paris
• The Magic Flute – always popular this time of year for it’s family friendly vibe
• Hansel and Gretel – a “Children’s opera” but the music says so much more
• Werther- Maybe not so uplifting but it begins with children learning a Christmas Carol and ends on Christmas Eve 

The obvious classic is Amahl and the Night Visitors - Click Here to see the original 1951 Broadcast!

Merry Christmas to All, Cindy
.